Christina Bambrick

Biography

Christina Bambrick is the Filip Family Assistant Professor of Political Science specializing in constitutional theory. Her research and teaching interests range from American and comparative constitutionalism to republican theory and the history of political thought.

Bambrick's book, Constitutionalizing the Private Sphere: A Comparative Inquiry (Cambridge 2025) examines the horizontal application of rights to non-state actors in comparative constitutionalism, specifically in the United States, India, Germany, South Africa, and the European Union. Jurists have traditionally understood the constitution as a separate kind of law that obligates only the state. However, courts increasingly understand constitutions as creating obligations for private entities such as businesses, private schools, and private individuals. Bambrick draws on constitutional debates, court cases, political histories, and interviews to argue that this development of horizontal application reflects a republican intervention in constitutionalism, thus altering the politics surrounding rights. While liberal narratives emphasize the rights of individuals, horizontal application builds a catalogue of duties as well, corresponding to the commitments and aspirations of a given constitutional order.

Bambrick's other publications include the articles, "Meeting of the Minds: Reshaping Citizens’ Rights and Duties" (with Maureen Stobb) in Journal of Law and Courts, and "Horizontal Rights: A Republican Vein in Liberal Constitutionalism" in Polity. She received her doctorate in Government from the University of Texas at Austin, and taught at Clemson University before coming to Notre Dame.

On leave Fall 2025